Reviews: Bujold, Lois McMaster

Mira’s Last Dance —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Penric & Desdemona, book 5

2017’s Mira’s Last Dance is the fifth instalment in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric & Desdemona series. The series takes place in the setting of Bujold’s Five Gods novels.

In the previous book, Penric was badly injured in a duel with a Cedonian sorcerer. His symbiotic demon Desdemona was able to keep Penric alive, but Penric and his two human companions, former General Arisaydia and the general’s sister Nikys, have been forced to pause in their flight from Cedonia while Penric heals.

Penric’s Fox —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Penric & Desdemona, book 3

2017’s Penric’s Fox is the fifth piece published and the third piece by internal chronology in Lois McMaster’s Penric & Desdemona series. The series is set in Bujold’s Five Gods setting.

What should have been a quiet afternoon of fishing and amiable conversation takes an unexpected turn. Penric and his shaman companion Inglis are conscripted to assist an inquirer in a murder investigation.

Murder is always a grave matter. This particular murder is even more disquieting: the dead person is Learned Magal, a sorcerer.

A Civil Campaign —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Miles Vorkosigan, book 10

A Civil Campaign is almost certainly the 10th volume in the Miles Vorkosigan series, unless you’re one of those people who think that the Cordelia Naismith books are part of the series, in which case this book is the 12th. As far as I am concerned it’s the 10th. It’s reasonable to consider Cordelia’s adventures as prequel, right? Like Ethan of Athos, related but independent?

I don’t know why I get requests at work not to overthink things.

The affair of the Komarran mirror successfully concluded, Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan is back on Barrayar. With no immediate Imperial business demanding his attention, Miles is free to invest all of his intellect and energy on one goal: winning the heart of the recently widowed Ekaterin Vorsoisson.

Komarr —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Miles Vorkosigan, book 9

1998’s Komarr is the ninth volume in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan series.

Barrayaran-conquered Komarr depends on its soletta array, which concentrates the feeble output of its sun, for marginal habitability and slowly progressing terraforming. When half the array is wrecked by a colliding spacecraft, it’s up to Imperial Auditor Georg Vorthys to determine whether this was a tragic mishap or deliberate sabotage.

Accompanying Vorthys is the most junior Imperial Auditor, Miles Vorkosigan.

The Vor Game —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Miles Vorkosigan, book 2

1990’s
The Vor Game
is the second of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles
Vorkosigan novels.

Four
years after the events of The
Warrior’s Apprentice,
Miles graduates from the Academy. Given his personal history and
family connections, one might expect him to be given some cushy
assignment. Instead he is dispatched to serve as weatherman on Kyril
Island, whose isolation is matched only by the region’s unfitness
for human habitation.

Still,
how much trouble could one fresh graduate get into a place so
sparsely peopled as Kyril Island?

1986’s
The
Warrior’s Apprentice
was Lois McMaster Bujold’s first Miles Vorkosigan novel.

Miles
was exposed to a lethal gas while still in the womb and his bones did
not develop properly. They are short and brittle. He looks odd; he
looks like a mutant, which is a bad thing to be on his native world
of Barrayar. During Barrayar’s time of isolation from other
human-settled worlds, mutants were killed at birth. Modern medicine
has better answers, but hatred of muties (and of people who are
visibly deformed or disabled) is still ingrained in Barrayaran custom.

Mile
must deal with daunting physical limitations. What may be worse is
the disdain and even hatred of his fellow Barrayarans, who see his
very existence as an affront to all that is right and good.

Miles
is an aristocrat; a period (or a lifetime) of military service is
customary for Barrayaran aristocrats. Miles wants to be a soldier
like his peers. He may lack physical prowess, but he has charm,
brains, and cunning. Those sterling qualities are enough to take him
to the top in the academic courses at the military academy … but
don’t help him pass the final physical test. He breaks both legs on
an obstacle course. There will be no Vor military career for Miles.
What to do with the rest of his life?

Barrayar —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Cordelia Vorkosigan, book 2

Lois
McMaster Bujold’s 1991 Barrayar
is the second Cordelia Vorkosigan novel. I am going to put off
working out how to number it in the grander Vorkosigan Saga and
Vorkosigan Universe sequences in the hope that nobody will notice if
I am inconsistent1.

The
plan: Barrayaran Aral marries Betan Cordelia; Aral retires from
active duty and the couple lives on their country estate, there to
enjoy long, happy lives.

The
outcome: Emperor Ezar Vorbarra is dying and has one last task for
Aral. It is a weighty task that will burden Aral and Cordelia for
years to come.

Shards of Honor —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Cordelia Vorkosigan, book 1

Lois
McMaster Bujold’s 1986 debut novel Shards
of Honor
is the first Cordelia Vorkosigan book, as well as the first novel set
in Bujold’s Vorkosiverse.

A
Betan exploratory mission has been sent through a newly discovered
wormhole; they have discovered a terrestrial world suitable for
colonization. Unfortunately for the Betans, they are the second group
to discover Sergyar. The Barrayaran militarists were there first and
they don’t want company.

Penric’s Mission —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Penric and Desdemona, book 3

Penric’s
Mission
is the third instalment in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric
and Desdemona
series.

Following
an ill-fated foray into medicine, demon-haunted, all-round-nice-guy
Penric takes up a new occupation: covert agent for the Duke of Adria.
As the novel opens, he is travelling into Cedonia, there to contact
to recruit a Cedonian general who is believed to be disaffected.

No
sooner does he step off the boat than Penric is arrested, beaten, and
thrown into prison. Not an auspicious beginning, particularly since
his cell is designed to fill with water once his captors have no
further use for him. Eventually, they do not.

Penric and the Shaman —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Chalion, book 5

Lois
McMaster Bujold’s
Penric
and the Shaman
is set four years after the events of Penric’s
Demon.
In the first novella, Penric had to flail his way through an utterly
unfamiliar situation; in this one, he has absorbed as much training
as the temple can cram into his head in four years
1. Because he
has a well-educated demon sharing his head, he has learned a LOT.

Good
for Penric, because this time round, we’re treated to a police
procedural rather than a coming-of-age story.

Paladin of Souls —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Chalion, book 2

One
of downsides of having other people pick what I read is that not only
do I miss perfectly good books that were assigned to other reviewers,
but I am often so busy reading what I must
that I don’t have much free time for unassigned reading. I miss
good books that way. One of those books was 2003’s Paladin
of Souls.
This is another novel set in the world of the Five Gods, the world
introduced in
The Curse of Chalion1. I like Bujold’s work; this was a Hugo-winning work; ergo, this
was something I wanted to read. I just never found the time.

Until now….

Finally
freed of the Golden General’s curse and the god-touched madness that
afflicted her, Ista tires of the boring, custom-bound life of an
aristocratic lady. She seizes on the one avenue of escape that is
open to her: pilgrimage.

Penric’s Demon —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Chalion, book 4

Bujold
returns to the world ofCurse of Chalionin the 2015 novella, Penric’s Demon.

Penric
is a lesser son of impoverished bluebloods, a harmless fellow whose
greatest value to his family is marital: he can score some
much-needed dosh by marrying Prieta, the daughter of a wealthy cheese
merchant. This is a pleasant enough prospect. Not only will the
marriage restore a measure of financial stability to the House of
Jurald, but Prieta is herself a charming armful, someone with whom
Penric can easily see himself spending a happy life.

Alas,
there will be no curvaceous cheese merchant’s daughter for Penric and
no financial windfall for the House of Jurald—Penric is sabotaged
by his own good nature.

Curse of Chalion —
Lois McMaster Bujold
Chalion, book 1

Although perhaps best known for her long-running hard SF [1] series, the Vorkosigan novels, Lois Bujold is also a popular writer of fantasy novels. Between 2001 and 2010, Bujold published nine novels; seven of those were fantasies. 2001’s [2] Hugo-nominated Curse of Chalion, the first volume in the eponymous trilogy, was the first of those seven novels.

~oOo~

Throughout his eventful career, former courtier and soldier Cazaril has participated in many diplomatic successes and military victories … although never on the winning side. Having survived the rough hospitality of the Roknari galleys, a ragged, weakened Cazaril makes his way to the town of Valendia. He hopes that his past service for the Dowager Provincara will convince her to grant him some easy position within her household. Not only is he still recovering from his recent tour as a galley-slave, he has powerful enemies and needs to stay as far from the royal court as possible.

He gains an unanticipated and unwanted success; he is appointed secretary-tutor to the headstrong Royesse Iselle. The Provincara hopes that Cazaril’s age and experience will help him temper Iselle’s well-meaning idealism with caution. Unfortunately, his new position, secretary-tutor to a princess in line for the throne, will expose him to the notice, and the malice, of the court. Even before he begins his job proper, Cazaril muses that it might be faster if the Provincara were simply to have his throat cut on the spot. Time and exposure will show that Cazaril was, if anything, too optimistic.